We represent the adapter between the Creator and creation, a connecting link, the chosen nation,  the “kingdom of priests.” We are the ones that received this mission from the Creator and each day we must hear these instructions anew from Mount Sinai, understand that the entire world is nothing but a desire to receive that is perceived within us in forms of still, vegetative, animate, and human nature. Our mission is to bring all of these levels to adhesion with the Creator.

Other people don’t have any freedom of will, no independent actions or thoughts; nothing is within their control. The upper force acts within them and puts them before us in order to give us work, which is to lead them toward the Creator. By means of this work, we will reach the exalted mission that rests upon the nation of Israel.

We must have this outlook with regard to all of reality and the entire picture that is being presented within our desire to receive. It doesn’t matter how we imagine actions in dissemination or work to attain unity and search for the upper force that corrects and unites us, bringing us to a good life, but naturally by all of this we imply adhesion with the Creator.

In our eyes the entire universe is divided into two halves: the Creator and the desire that needs to be brought to adhesion with Him. Through this work we will attain adhesion with the Creator. Such is our mission and it’s the only work that exists in reality. After all, everything else simply unfolds in accordance with the program of creation in which there is no freewill or work on the creature’s part.

Any time we appeal to people, to the physical nation of Israel or to the nations of the world, in all of them, we must see the desire that we have to bring to adhesion with the Creator. And even though we are talking to people in simple terms, we must always remember the Creator and that He ordered this work and chose us to be His servants and His holy nation, meaning a buffer or His representatives. Besides Him, there exists the “material” without freedom of will, meaning all those who don’t possess the desire to be closer to the Creator, and we have to bring them to this adhesion. Therein lies our mission.

A person that carries out this work and tries even in the most external form to bring this “human material” to the Creator is performing the most important mission. Even though it’s just the beginning, it’s more important than anything else. We must understand, feel, and set our intention so that our beginning action includes the end result, which is to bring the still, vegetative, animate, and human nature to adhesion with the Creator. In the beginning of each action we have to understand that we are making it for the sake of final correction.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/15/13

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Question: Yesterday the Israeli Finance Ministry announced a cut in pensions of 10%. The economic situation is becoming more severe…

Answer: Since the day before yesterday we have not attracted the Light that Reforms which would correct our state to the same degree; instead of lowering 10% from the pension they would have added 10%. We are to blame because only we have free choice. If we had carried out a correction yesterday, today we would not hear about this.

What do you want from the government? The politicians and the government officials base themselves on facts: Here is the budget, here are the expenses, including the “hidden” manipulations, and this is what is left for the pension. And what will you do here?

Stop dreaming about a “fair budget.” We cannot come to them with claims. They are only arguing about where to get what’s missing. And understandably, they don’t collect taxes from the big tycoons and corporations. There is no nation in the world where they deprive the rich, rather the opposite, they only add more and more to them.

The authorities act according to their egoistic calculation and continue in the same way. Ten percent of the pension is nothing compared to what is standing ahead of us.

If you want changes, only the Light that Reforms can bring them. Therefore, understand—everything depends on you.

Behind the scenes the higher force acts and we are prepared to change its influence on us from negative to positive. It sends us the evil only so we will be “caught” in it, obligating it to be linked to us and correct us.

We need the Creator and until we understand this it is as if we are left in the hands of blind fate.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/14/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “Exile and Redemption”: As long as we followed the path of Torah, we remained safe.

As we all know, all the commandments of the Torah come down to one main rule “Love thy friend as thyself.” All the commandments are the correction and the changing of our desire to receive from the intention of in order to receive to in order to bestow. So if the people of Israel performed all these corrections and kept the principle of love, they wouldn’t suffer from all the afflictions of being in exile.

On the other hand, we have to understand that the exile is essential; we have to feel it and to actually be immersed in it for some time.

It isn’t by chance that a couple of centuries ago Kabbalists in eastern Europe used to exile themselves, a person would leave his home and wander not knowing where to. He walked around among people and encountered different troubles and problems and found himself in different situations that allowed him to “mingle” among all those who hated him.

Such voluntary exile helped hasten the general exile so that it would end much sooner than the predetermined date. Kabbalists didn’t do it for themselves but actually in order to bestow. Today it is hard to imagine what situations and afflictions they put themselves through. Yet, they felt they had to go through all that in order to acquire the real power to turn to the Creator.

Theoretically, however, if the people of Israel had kept the law of love and had not adopted the manners of their neighbors, they wouldn’t have been incorporated in them in exile and wouldn’t have discovered the evil and hatred others feel towards them. So all the bad things that are discovered are actually the same “hardenings of the heart” that we didn’t manage to turn into ascents and which thus have caused us to descend…
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “Exile and Redemption”: As long as we (the Israeli nation) followed the path of Torah, we remained safe.

The Torah is the law of bestowal, “don’t do unto your friend what is hateful to you,” and then “love thy friend as thyself” until we reach “love thy Lord your God.” If you really yearn for the goal in all these phases, if you value your life only according to these principles and advance from the minor corrections to the general correction, if you act this way according to the laws of nature (or the laws of the Torah, as the word God and the word nature have the same numerical value), then you are in the right direction and nothing bad can happen to you on the way.

All the evil that you encounter is revealed to you only because you have not corrected a certain flaw that you should have corrected in the current phase. These flaws are revealed one after another from the minor to the more serious ones and if you don’t correct them they accumulate.

Since these processes are also typical to the systems in our world, minor corruptions or an illness can be corrected immediately in the initial phase, but if we neglect the problem the corruptions accumulate and bring about additional corruptions and greater problems and troubles that are hard to overcome.

So if the people of Israel observed the Torah, which means that the Light that Reforms would correct all the flaws that are revealed from the minor ones to the most serious ones, then nothing bad would happen to it. On the contrary, it would rise and grow stronger; it would feel the future corrections and the future fillings in the flaws that are revealed.

All the evil that we encounter is revealed since we neglect the necessary corrections. All our problems starting from the private ones and all the way to global disasters like world wars depend only on the corrections. Since the Israeli nation is responsible for these corrections, then clearly the moment people feel bad in this world they accuse the Jews and blame them for all the troubles in the world.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Straight to the Creator

One wishes to complete one’s soul and return it to its root, which is considered Israel.
Baal HaSulam, Letter 17

Following the path that leads to the Creator is called Isra-El (directly to the Creator). It means that the person’s intentions in all their actions should be aimed straight to the Creator.
Rabash, Shlavey HaSulam, Article 20, “Who Strengthened Thy Heart?”
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[Commentaries in brackets are mine]

Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee): The Entire Nation of Israel is Responsible for One Another

This is to speak of the Arvut (Mutual Guarantee) [that can be achieved only] when all of Israel became responsible for one another.

Because the Torah was not given to them [to the group that was founded by Abraham and brought to a decision to stay in Arvut by Moses] before each and every one from Israel was asked if he agreed to take upon himself the Mitzva (precept) of loving others in the full measure, [as a result of their work on achieving unity] expressed in the words: “Love thy friend as thyself…

[The essence of the commandment is] Each and every one in Israel would take it upon himself to care [for all participants of the group] and work for each member of the nation, [for each friend] and to satisfy all their needs, no less than the measure imprinted in him to care for his own needs.

And once the whole nation unanimously agreed [to be in a state of a complete unity in their desires] and said, ‘We shall do and we shall hear,’ each member of Israel became responsible that nothing shall be missing from any other member of the nation. [Meaning their spiritual development] Only then did they become worthy of receiving the Torah, [the Light of correction that would gradually lead them to Arvut] and not before [because there was no readiness to implement mutual guarantee and the desire to unite as it was before the shattering of one unified Soul.]
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In order to transcend to a new level we have to attain a state in which you have no idea what is happening to you and all the old forms disappear. You cannot work with them nor can you hold on to them anymore, and you feel puzzled and confused both in your mind and heart.

The world seems so strange and unfamiliar that you don’t understand which world you live in. you are like a seed that was totally rotten in the ground and has lost all form and direction. You have already lost your old form and have not received the new form yet. Thus you move from one state to the next.

You will see how different this is from what you see in your corporeal, healthy egoistic mind and heart. A state of disorientation, helplessness and confusion becomes the beginning of a new man on a new level. To the extent that this seems undesirable from a realistic egoistic point of view, it is actually desirable for a person’s advancement.

There is a law that the individual and the general are equal. So the whole world is in the same state today, feeling this confusion, not understanding where it comes from. The whole world feels powerless and in despair. People don’t know what to do next: All the old views, all the old paradigms, the whole perception of life is disappearing and going bankrupt.

It is the first time in history that we are in such a position. There are no leaders, no dogmas, nothing. No one is saying that he knows what needs to be done anymore. Where are the revolutionaries of the past like Che Guevara, Marx, they are gone. It is a sign that all the ideas and views, all the previous approaches have rotted, like the seed that rots in the ground, from which something totally new has to grow now.

We have reached a state of Ibur (conception) and from now on the new world will begin to grow and to develop. The old form is lost and soon a new form will be depicted. The world doesn’t know it yet. But we, those who engage with the wisdom of Kabbalah, are the new Reshimo (spiritual gene) for the world, transferring the world from the old state to the new state. The world needs guidance growing in this state, and we have to fulfill the role of the Reshimo and reveal to the world how to advance and grow onward.

In all the other states what needs to be done is revealed by itself according to natural laws. It is instinctively clear to the still, vegetative, and animate nature what to do and how to grow. But on the human level this growth has to be done consciously by special efforts. It is by this that man is different from an animal.

Our body is an animal, but the mind has to be human, like Adam, which means “Domeh” (resembles the Creator). So we have to advance to the new state consciously, knowingly, by our own powers. Here we need to wake people up, to arrange them, to guide them. Therefore, Israel is called Li Rosh (I have a head). One can only grow by understanding, consciously and by making efforts, and we do it gradually. We grow by getting closer to fulfilling this role, and the world becomes more and more desperate and ready for us to raise it. It will happen very soon.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/02/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “Exile and Redemption”: … a far more rapid development than the other nations has come to us. And because the members of the nation developed so, there was always the necessity to go forward and be extremely meticulous with all the Mitzvot of the Torah. And because they would not do it, but wished to include their narrow selfishness, meaning the Lo Lishma, this developed the ruin of the First Temple, since they wished to extol wealth and power above justice, as other nations.

But because the Torah prohibits it, they denied the Torah and the prophecy and adopted the manners of the neighbors so they could enjoy life as much as selfishness demanded of them. And because they did that, the powers of the nation disintegrated: some followed the kings and the selfish officers, and some followed the prophets. And that separation continued until the ruin.

During the period of the Temples, the people of Israel experienced spiritual blossoming, attaining the entire reality of the universe. However, the split did not take long. If one part of the nation wanted to keep the straight path to attainment of the upper force, the other part wanted to use at least a bit of attainment for the needs of material life.

Life was very difficult in those days and people were forced to work hard to earn their keep. Besides that, wars sometimes took lives, sometimes several thousand lives a day.

As a consequence, it was a delicate moment for people to decide every time whether it were possible to use the spiritual forces that were available. It was not easy and that is why we should not falsely accuse all those who went astray. People, then, were not on our stage, and they faced severe internal situations with the hardest problems, which were according to their knowledge and thus aligned and balanced them to make free choice.

They were unable to resist, and in principle, it was not so much their fault as the general program of creation in which the inherent destruction of the Temple, and the four exiles, the final complete redemption, the beginning of which we now are experiencing. The program is predetermined. The end of the action is provided in the original plan and Kabbalists have known about it since ancient times.

However, on the other hand, we do not succumb to fatalism.

On the whole, we need to treat the descriptions of the events that occurred at that time carefully. We should not superficially divide people into right and wrong, good and bad. I repeat, we are talking about people who had spiritual attainment and received the burdening of the heart of the corresponding force.

At the beginning of the process, everything happens at the level of the First Temple, when the Light of Hochma was revealed in the community of the people. It would seem that if the Creator has been revealed, what more? Where will the ungodly come from in this state? Yet, one potential corresponds to the other, and we always balance on the point of the freedom of will.

Baal HaSulam writes about “the kings and the selfish officers.” In those days, an officer was not just a member of the nobility or a high-ranking commander, but a leader managing people with his spirit, that is, spiritual attainment, not to mention the king.

In short, today we do not understand those contradictions, and the most important thing for us is not to despise the “fallen” who seem like villains to us.

Anyway, the overall program leads to the complete deliverance of the entire world, but first it applies to its small part that Abraham led out from Babylon. Therefore, even if the people of Israel had made huge, heroic, incredible efforts, the Temple still would have been destroyed. The signs of this began to appear seventy years before the collapse. It was impossible to stop the process because the program of development must be implemented.

At the same time, we must make every effort in the struggle for bestowal, counteracting the division and lack of unity. One does not negate the other. Everything must be directed at bestowal. Not one little thing can be used for one’s own benefit.

In the days of the Temple, it was not about luxury on the current level of well-being, but about allowing people to slightly ease the hard living conditions, that is, bringing some drop of self-love into the altruistic aspiration, to add purely symbolic and seemingly deserved “dessert” to the minimal “diet.”

However, this drop spoils everything and disturbs the general course. As a result, it no longer leads directly to the Creator, but diverts to the side, even if just a little, but the result is failure.

In the Second Temple, it was even more conspicuous, since the beginning of the separation was publicly displayed by unvirtuous disciples, headed by Tzadok and Bytos.

The calculation should be updated constantly and become more accurate. Otherwise, we lose our way, looking for a foothold in the external environment and presenting it to defeat our opponents who want to keep the old, original way. Thus, Israel was captured by the Roman Empire because some of the people agreed to descend into egoism and take a fraction for themselves. However, there is no part for oneself in altruism, and even the basics we get only in order to live in pure bestowal.

Today, the nation is far from these calculations. Who sincerely speaks of love and bestowal, unity and support, brotherhood and mutual guarantee today? On the contrary, a man is proud of his superiority over others and boasts of his ability to trample on others. The main thing is to be strong. The power of the fist, the power of the official, is what reigns over people today.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/2/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: “Now that we have learned all the above, we can understand an unclear phrase in “Masechet Avot” (Chapter 3, Item 16). It reads as follows: “He (Rabbi Akiva) would say, ‘All is in deposit, and a fortress spreads over all of life. The store is open and the shopkeeper sells by deferred payment, the book is open and the hand writes. And all who wish to borrow may come and borrow, and the collectors return regularly, day-by-day, and collect from a person knowingly and unknowingly. And they have what to rely on, and the judgment is true, and all is ready for the feast.’”

Question: What is “true judgment?”

Answer: Judgment is according to the relations of the Lights and the vessels. There is a law that although the Light (+) and the vessel (-) are opposite from one another and there is a huge gap between them that is divided into 125 degrees, the vessel still has to move with its attributes towards the Light through all these levels. This is the first principle—equivalence of form.

We were given 6000 years in which we can go by two paths in order to reach equivalence of form.

In addition, humanity is divided into two groups:

• Israel (GE) – that yearn to reach the Creator by themselves.
• The nations of the world (AHP) who were not given this yearning.

Thus there are rules that are not determined by us. In this world, we don’t choose anything; all our desires are managed from above. The Light comes and evokes a certain deficiency in the desire and leaves us no choice but to try to fulfill it. Why? We are not asked.

The desire comes first and the mind and the different accounts are the outcome. They are the means that allow us to escape the sufferings since a deficiency that is not fulfilled and sufferings are actually the same thing. Only later do we acquire deficiencies that are felt as pleasures thanks to the yearning for love.

This development can be compared with the roller that is moving on us from behind and forces us to run forward. This is the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) of the first type (OM I), general, shining on everyone, protecting and advancing everyone in a mandatory way. We think that the world is ruled by politicians, the elite, etc., but in fact, as it is written, “The hearts of ministers and king’s are in the hands of the Creator.”

But in addition, there is the Surrounding Light of the second type (OM II). This is our Light; it applies to those who have the point in the heart (•). It affects us, moves us forward, makes us get up to study at 3 in the morning in order to change ourselves, to help humanity, etc.

The law operates here too since we were not asked whether we wanted to be awakened or not. In The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 4, Baal HaSulam says: “The Creator Himself puts one’s hand on the good fate.”

Which means that He brings a person to choose the environment and says: “‘Choose for yourself a good part in My land.’ He places him on the good part and tells him: ‘Choose this for yourself.’”

You will strengthen the Surrounding Light by incorporating in the group. This is already the very personal Light that a person can provoke by himself thus creating the beginning of his connection with the Creator.

So when I make great efforts in the group, I begin to establish the relationship with Him only in the group, since it cannot be done outside the group. Only here can I connect with the source of the Light. This means that it isn’t about the Light or the changes that it evokes, not even about the group, and certainly not about me. The only important thing is that it ties me to the source, to the Creator. Everything else is just the means.

And so if I build a chain, I do all that is required: I evoke the Light, incorporate in the group, and annul myself before the friends. The most important thing is to constantly develop and to strengthen my connection with the source of the Light. Thus I work with the private Surrounding Light according to the private arrangement that is in accordance with the group and the general global development.

Question: Does that mean that I have to totally justify the judgment and understand that it is right?

Answer: There is no judgment from above. The Creator brings you to the group and tells you “Choose for yourself.” In other words, grow stronger in it, work with the friends, and continue to advance.

He “places your hand on the good part,” so do you choose it or not? If you don’t, then to the same extent that you ignore your role, you immediately summon trouble upon yourself. Not only is your personal incompleteness taken into account here, but also the negative outcome that will affect everyone. All this returns to you like a boomerang and begins to pressure you. So it isn’t the Creator who sends us all the problems. Only love stems from Him. You discover this later.

So why did you feel so bad? Because you didn’t fulfill your role towards yourself and towards others and so you felt the outcome of your failures. Because of your lack of understanding, you thought that it stems from Him, but in fact it is you who caused your own troubles by yourself. When you eventually see that, you don’t have any complaints to the Creator.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The term “sacrifices” in Judaism refers to the desire to give of oneself to society. From the meat of the animals that were sacrificed at the Temple, the poor, the Levites, and the people held meals, and this was called “the work of the Temple.”

The desire to give of oneself to society was expressed in the form of a commandment a person should perform, in the form of tithe, which was used for educating the people.

Everyone had to bring a sacrifice according to the sin he had committed or something that he did wrong. The people were on a spiritual level at that time, and everyone determined his egoistic sins by himself since the others didn’t see them. A person felt where he had gone wrong and where he had sinned, and then according to Rabash, he had to have a feast, invite friends, sit together, and connect with them. This is called “God’s work.”

This is how people connect. At the same time they did very intensive, internal, spiritual work as to why they were doing all that. When a person has a feast, he raises and awakens others so that they will impress him more next time and help him not to fall again.

Everything is done in a very peaceful way as we also do today. Why do we need a corporeal Temple? We have a place where we meet with the group and there you bring your “sacrifices.” But everyone has to first clarify things in an anti-egoistic manner since otherwise all this is meaningless.

The sacrifices, the work in the Temple, and all the other activities are totally different from what we were brought up to believe. It is all aimed only at the connection between people.

The Temple is a place where all the desires and all the corrections gather. It is the place from where people went out to every region to teach the people, and there wasn’t anyone who did not know how to read and how to count. Everyone knew how to do everything; they all knew the spiritual work thanks to the tithe they gave to support the Temple.

No one followed anyone! Everyone had to do this, otherwise you were not considered one who bestows, who gives. What’s more, if a person gave unwillingly and only because he was forced to, it wasn’t considered a tithe. As it says on the two tablets on which the Ten Commandments were engraved:”Everyone should give as his heart wills.” If it doesn’t come from the heart, it is not considered bestowal.

The Torah, “Exodus,” “Jethro,” 20:22: And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.

An altar must always be higher than you, above your head, “above reason,” above your knowledge and your attainment. This means that bestowal should always be higher than all your calculations.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/4/13

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